suriyopama wrote:I know families that had to struggle with very difficult economic situations because they donated too much money, and they were avoiding friendship with "non-believers". But they were not able to see the cause of the problem because their minds were absorbed. Shouldn’t we have a little bit of compassion, and voice concerns about the dangers of the cults?

The true teachings of the Buddha are freely available, even if they are hard to distinguish from false teachings. Anyone who is wise can learn them. We do not need to be concerned with those who follow cults or wrong paths. Just teach the Dhamma, neither disparaging nor condoning others. Those who have the necessary wisdom to understand will do so. Those who have past bad kamma will not listen — being themselves motivated by greed they will donate to the greedy. If one attacks evil-doers, the gullible will defend their own teachers, and close their ears to your criticisms. So what is there to gain from this?

There are plenty of Theravāda monks with the same fault of greed, who amplify the benefits of giving charity, and downplay the benefits of study and practice. Of all the Theravāda monks who have nothing to do with the Dhammakāya, what proportion of them accept and make use of money? I reckon it is well over 90%. Should we concern ourselves with those millions in donations given to shameless Theravādin monks by gullible devotees who think that such adhamma dāna is meritorious?

I say, do not trouble yourself with that. Teach the genuine Dhamma, and practice it as well as you know how. If you cannot practice it perfectly, teach it anyway, but be ready to admit your own faults and limitations. To see the faults of others is easy, but it doesn't lead towards the cessation of suffering.

Now is the Dhamma-ending age. Those with good perfections are rare. Many place their faith in amulets, and anxiously “accumulate merit” hoping to meet Metteyya Buddha, or to enjoy celestial pleasures after death. The flood of false teachings cannot be turned back by anyone until the next Buddha appears. Meanwhile, the true teachings of Gotama Buddha are still extant — but it takes sincere and diligent effort to find them, and having found them, to practice them well.

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:If one attacks evil-doers, the gullible will defend their own teachers, and close their ears to your criticisms. So what is there to gain from this?

Sadhu Bhante, thank you for this great posting

Get the wanting out of waiting

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:There are plenty of Theravāda monks with the same fault of greed, who amplify the benefits of giving charity, and downplay the benefits of study and practice. Of all the Theravāda monks who have nothing to do with the Dhammakāya, what proportion of them accept and make use of money? I reckon it is well over 90%. Should we concern ourselves with those millions in donations given to shameless Theravādin monks by gullible devotees who think that such adhamma dāna is meritorious?

Is it really that bad, Bhante? That really is sad. If there is one thing that I have absolutely no doubt about in Buddhism it's this: the Buddha was an ascetic and he taught an ascetic way of life to the monks.

311. Just as kusa grass wrongly handled cuts the hand, even so, a recluse's life wrongly lived drags one to states of woe.

313. If anything is to be done, let one do it with sustained vigor. A lax monastic life stirs up the dust of passions all the more.

Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:The true teachings of the Buddha are freely available, even if they are hard to distinguish from false teachings. Anyone who is wise can learn them. We do not need to be concerned with those who follow cults or wrong paths. Just teach the Dhamma, neither disparaging nor condoning others. Those who have the necessary wisdom to understand will do so. Those who have past bad kamma will not listen — being themselves motivated by greed they will donate to the greedy. If one attacks evil-doers, the gullible will defend their own teachers, and close their ears to your criticisms. So what is there to gain from this? ....

Thank you for your words, Bhante. That is what I needed to listen at this moment.

I have opened a new thread in order to develop that interesting topic. How much to engage? When and how should we say STOP in order to bring our practice to a higher level? As laymen, what is our compromise and duties with our society?.

Apparently Steve Jobs Is Now Half a Yak And Lives In A Silver And Crystal Castle

It can be somewhat difficult to entirely parse the meanings of those religions with which one is not familiar. But it would appear that one Thai Buddhist sect has decided, nay declared, that Steve Jobs is now half of a yak inhabiting a crystal and silver castle in the afterlife.

"After Mr. Steve Jobs has passed away, he reincarnated as a divine being (…) encompassing his characteristics: a person with the knowledge (and a great appreciation) for both science and arts (…) His reincarnation is a “Thepphabhut Phumadeva [divinity] of middle rank – half a Witthayathorn, half yak” that lives in a parallel universe not very far away from where he was as a human.…Concerning the living space of this new divine being: it is a very clean-cut, simple and middle-sized, six-story in height, which is built with silver metal and crystal in large quantities and that is not very far away from where he used to work in his human form.”

A full (and much worse) translation of the declaration can be found at the sect’s website here

The important question here is of course why is a business columnist covering this nonsense? Because it is business of course. As it is pointed out:

“So sayeth the leader of the Dhammakaya sect, a Thai Buddhist version of the prosperity gospel hustle"

This particular variant of Buddhism insists that a better result in the afterlife is gained by making charitable donations in this one. So far, so very normal about many religious ideas and sects. They go further and suggest, again not uncommonly, that charitable donations to this specific Buddhist sect will carry more weight in one’s position in the afterlife. And a good way to get some publicity for such a viewpoint is to produce a story about how a recently deceased famous person is faring in that afterlife in order to get the donations rolling in.

I think it was L Ron Hubbard who said that the way to get truly rich was to start a religion. He’s by no means the first person to have acted on the idea and most certainly won’t be the last. He was however the only one recorded as being honest about the point of it all.

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

Guess what? I got the attendance list of a Dhammakaya event. Well, not exactly Dhammakaya event, but WFBY event. Then again, what’s the difference?

Besides, their schedule says that at 9am on 13 Feb will be “Openning Ceremony at DKF/BYLT Program”. (English is not their strong point, but they are good at marketing and politicking.) On the next day (Magha Puja), the program shows that the activities are at Wat Dhammakaya. I suppose they are expected to worship the spaceship, and maybe the pyramid too. There's also lots of award giving on the following day. Maybe that's the attraction to the international Buddhist 'leaders'. Awards! How sweet!

Here’s the list. (To the moderator, please don’t censor this. People need to know who are getting involve and unwittingly getting their members into a known Buddhist cult. Please.... Besides, it's not a secret meeting. The press will surely be invited.)

WFBY is the international network of Buddhist youth organizations around the world sharing the same aims of propagation and promote understanding of Buddhism to youth. Today, WFBY membership has expanded to 38 Regional Centers in 18 countries.DescriptionW.F.B.Y. was created with the purpose to:

1. Promote and strengthen, understanding and practice of the teachings of the Lord Buddha among youth and increase respect and piety towards the Triple Gem, Parents, and Elders and to each other.

2. Promote unite, solidarity and networking among young Buddhists around world.

3. Organize and carry out activities in the social, economic, educational, recreational, cultural and religious fields together with humanitarian concerns.

4. Promote peace and harmony among the young people and cooperate with W.F.B. and other organizations which have the same goals in mind.

Bhikkhus, if you develop and make much this one thing, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction. What is it? It is recollecting the Enlightened One. If this single thing is recollected and made much, it invariably leads to weariness, cessation, appeasement, realization and extinction.Anguttara-Nikaya: Ekanipata: Ekadhammapali: PañhamavaggaVSMVMMWBBTBHTWTBTMy Page

"For an award as prestigious sounding as this, it is a wonder that none of the well-known global Buddhist luminaries, such as the likes of the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Kyentse Rinpoche (famed film producer), Ven Cheng Yen (founder of Tzu Chi Foundation), Bhikkhu Thannisaro (sutta translator of "Access to Insight"), Ven Pannyvaro (Buddhanet), Robert Thurman, Joseph Goldstein, Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Brahm, Ayya Khemma, Ani Choying, Sulak Sivaraksa, Ananda Guruge – to name a few - are not in the list. These individuals have deeply influenced the development of Buddhism and Dhamma propagation throughout the world, over many decades. Surely they are worthy of being noted as “outstanding world Buddhist leaders”.

Instead, what is obvious is that persons and organizations affiliated with the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) and World Fellowship of Buddhists Youth (WFBY) form a bulk of the recipients. Among the Bhikkhu Sangha, four of them are directly associated with Dhammakaya. People will generally want to know the criteria used in selecting these individuals and organizations for the awards.

Make no mistake. The time has come where “the temple of profit” has decided to come out of its shadows and announce its presence to the world. Award recipients from 10 different countries shall bear witness to this rise, bowing with salutation while being handed their personal recognition.

...

It is very likely that the presentation of this award is an approach by Dhammakaya to draw Buddhist leaders from various countries to their home base, providing them with some form of “shock and awe” so as to win over their approval. While wealth and power may bring quick access in the short term, truth and insight shall reveal the true nature of Dhammakaya’s motivations.

Let’s just pray that the award recipients have the awareness and wisdom to actually see through the real purpose of this event."

I hope that those with little dust in their eyes will see for themselves. But the damage done to the overall perception of the buddhasasana by the Dhammakaya Cult in the coming years seems to me most likely nothing else than another sign that this age will be the age of the decline of dhamma. Buddhasasana won't be forgotten in times like these with internet and globalisation... but it seems that it will be manipulated to death by false monks, false preachers.

Get the wanting out of waiting

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

This pattern seems to suggest that the meaning of "9*3" is that Malaysia has 9 representatives from 3 organizations.

You're right. I'm quite sure Victor's representing BGF. Loka, not sure. Ong See Yew, probably YBAM. If so, the funny thing is that YBAM "fought" with a monk whom they said brainwashed a group of medical students. It became obvious later that the monk is from Dhammakaya.

SciFi + Massive Propaganda + financial interests + using religion as a vehicle for that business model = Dhammatology?I forgot to add "Disneyland" into that calculation.

Get the wanting out of waiting

What does womanhood matter at all, when the mind is concentrated well, when knowledge flows on steadily as one sees correctly into Dhamma. One to whom it might occur, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’ or ‘I’m anything at all’ is fit for Mara to address. – SN 5.2

If they take what's yours, tell yourself that you're making it a gift.Otherwise there will be no end to the animosity. - Ajahn Fuang Jotiko

Kumara wrote:I'm quite sure Victor's representing BGF. Loka, not sure. Ong See Yew, probably YBAM. If so, the funny thing is that YBAM "fought" with a monk whom they said brainwashed a group of medical students. It became obvious later that the monk is from Dhammakaya.

I just found out that Ong See Yew is not representing YBAM, but Melaka Buddhist Lodge, which I've only heard of since this "Dhammakaya Awards". It's an unknown entity compared to YBAM, in which he's the Immediate Past President. (The only pages on "Melaka Buddhist Lodge" I've found on Google are all on this event only, thus suggesting its obscurity.) I wonder: Is YBAM distancing itself from WFB because of it's deep connections with Dhammakaya? And BGF is jumping headlong into it?

Meanwhile, Loka Ng is not representing a Malaysian organisation. He has become WFBY's Deputy President,

Last edited by Kumara on Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:28 am, edited 1 time in total.